Your customers are all different and can be found at different stages of your sales funnel. When it comes to the customer experience, individual behavior and emotions differ according to their engagement. You may see different behaviors in a customer whether they are buying or seeking support. 

So don't have the same approach to handle all your customers- it will lead to bad experiences with some of them. And as per studies, it has been found that 33% of customers leave a brand after just one bad experience. 

Instead of grabbing your customers and pulling them in whatever way you please, you should segment them and treat them based on their stage of customer journey and personality. This will allow you to generate more revenue and engage your customers like never before. 

So let’s learn about various ways you can connect to different customers by exploring the different types of customer engagement. 

Types of customer engagement

In the traditional business model, there are four types of customer engagement.  

• Contextual engagement: It is based on customer behavior. For instance, if a customer looks at certain products on your eCommerce store but does not add anything to the cart, then you can send a personalized email showing products similar to his/her search history and encourage them to take action.  

• Convenience engagement: Any form of brand-customer engagement that increases the customer's convenience can be referred to as convenience engagement. The Amazon Dash Button feature is an excellent example of convenience engagement.  

• Emotional engagement: A Harvard professor claims that 95% of our decisions are influenced by our emotions. So all forms of customer engagement marketing activities that involve human emotions come under emotional engagement. 

• Social engagement: This form of engagement is the result of successful contextual, convenience, and emotional engagement. So, the more you see customers interacting with you on social platforms, so good is your performance on the different types of customer engagement.  

However, in the modern days, we still cannot cling to the traditional types of customer engagement. For, customer engagement differs with the various stages of the buyer's journey. The engagement marketing for a new customer has to be different from that of a loyal customer.   

So, in this blog, we are going to look at the persona of customers and prospects before and after a purchase. Understanding their personality will help you in leveraging the right engagement strategy.  

Types of customer engagement based on their buying journey 

Alright, before buying from you, your prospective customer is a researcher and doubter. But once you convince them and get them to try your products and services, you make them your new customers. Down the line, your engagement strategy would either take them through the active, loyal, and advocate customer journey or lead them through the lapsing, at-risk, and churn path.  

No matter the stage of the customer journey, with the right type of customer engagement tailored for the buyer persona, you can hope to win their relationship with your brand.  

Let's then divulge the types of customer engagement with respect to the buyer journey.  

1. Engaging the researcher 

Researchers are prospective, quiet customers who are looking at your business, but probably checking out other options as well. They’ve seemed interested, but they haven’t made any decisions yet. 

When you have this kind of customer in the consideration stage, it’s important to grab their attention somehow. 

To engage prospects, make your website stand out. Think about what's motivating people to visit your website. Use words in your content that they'll understand and keep the design of your site fresh. Make sure your website is engaging by popping the right offers based on what the visitor has surfed. 

It is important to remove any obstacles at the beginning stage of working with customers. It is equally vital that you provide them with a good customer experience. Small gestures like dodgy pop-ups, nagging ads, navigation trouble, or delayed customer support can make customers think twice before making a purchase decision. 

Your website mirrors your brand. Based on what content your visitors see while they research, the customer relationship can either bloom or wither.  

2. Engaging the doubter 

These types of customers are similar to window shoppers but have different attitudes. They are confused customers who are more clueless and unclear about what they should do. 

To convince them into shopping with you, you got to make all your contact channels easily available. You can use chatbots or live chat or customer support options to turn prospects' decisions in your favor.  

In your content, glorify your value proposition and USP. Show positive customer feedback and win the potential customer's trust.  

3. Engaging the new customer 

Your new customers are those who have just made their first purchase. They would be in a stage wherein they are trying to understand your product and might still need a little guidance on how to get the maximum out of your product or service.  

For these newbies, strive to give what they want, without them having to hunt through your store or website to discover what they need. It's important that the customer feels like they are getting their needs met by your brand. 

Next, you should start engaging with the customers more often than just when they're ordering items from your company. This will help create a stronger connection between your business and your customers, which helps build trust, and customer loyalty. 

One way you can do this is by responding back quickly if there is an issue or request made by the customer. You can also give them restocking reminders if the products they bought need a refilling. Or, you could also try sharing content that would be useful to them, such as a campaign you are running or slashing your rates for Black Friday. This way, you will show that you care about customer satisfaction.  

4. Engaging the repeat customer 

Repeat customers are the ones who are often actively using your products or services and are delighted by their positive experiences. However, they are not yet loyal customers to your retail business. Being able to offer customers a better deal than the competition is key for gaining these active customers and improving the customer retention rate. 

It's crucial to nurture them the right way, instead of ignoring them because they are already using your products. You can do this by offering discounts, tier-based programs, cashback programs, community programs, free shipping, special promotions, etc., based on their previous purchases. 

Delivering best-in-class customer service really makes the difference. Keeping your customers engaged with your brand will help to build healthier business relationships. Automatically, customers that you guide throughout their purchase journey will be less likely to switch to your competitors. 

5. Engaging the lapsed customer 

It's normal for things to go wrong at some point. As a result, you'll occasionally have unhappy and angry customers. This can lead to a lapse in their purchase cycle. If you let it persist over a period of time, it will lead to customer churn.  

However, being proactive and quick is key to fixing things and earning your lapsed customers back. Analyze customer reviews and understand why customers aren't frequently shopping with you as they used to do before. Ensure to rectify the wrongs, apologize, assure them that you have resolved their pain points, and re-establish the customer relations or it may be too late for you to win them back. 

Don't forget that you have an advantage over your competitors here. You're familiar with your lapsed customers. They would have to go through the entire process of onboarding again if they switched. In order to convince them to purchase from you again, take the above proactive steps. 

6. Engaging the at-risk customer 

At-risk customers are those of your customer base who are on the verge of churning. Leave them with no contact, they'll stop doing business with you, forever. A customer engagement platform like SWAN will help you identify at-risk shoppers by monitoring customer behavior.  

For instance, say a repeat customer usually purchases formal wear from you once every three months. Then you notice in that time, he/she does not turn up. This happens again, and the customer has lapsed. Let's say this happens for at least a year, the customer is at-risk and might churn any moment.  

Here is where you need to plan customer engagement initiatives to retain your customer. With the help of a marketing automation platform, you can set up triggers that monitor and act in a pre-defined way for specific customer interactions.   

7. Engaging the loyal customer 

Your loyal customer is the best form of engaged customer. They are your repeat customers who have formed an emotional bond with you. They would respond to all customer communications, interact with your posts on social media platforms, and are generally happier customers than the rest.  

Customer engagement marketing such as loyalty programs, referral campaigns would serve well to engage loyal customers and boost their loyalty, so that they become your brand ambassadors.  

Talk to them and understand what made them loyal to your brand. Try replicating the same customer engagement marketing strategy with your ideal customer to achieve your business goals.  

Engage your customers in every phase of the shopping life cycle! 

Customer engagement is crucial now than ever before. A shallow approach isn't going to help you build lasting customer relations. You need thorough research and understanding of the buyer persona in each of the buying stages to engage them best.  

While it's impossible to render all a personal touch in the business process manually, a customer relationship management (CRM) platform would assist you in your engagement marketing. By automating the process, you can ensure better accuracy and greater customer satisfaction.